random notes of a skeptical geologist

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Category Archives: where-on-google-earth

Hindered Settling hasn’t hosted a Where-on-Google-Earth in a long time, but WoGE #295 (hosted at Andiwhere’s) had such a range of colors and geological features that I couldn’t refrain from looking for it and, once found it, had to post the solution. So, after a short break in the game (busy week!) here is WoGE #296 — the rules of the game are nicely described over here. I invoke the Schott rule. Posting time is July 8, 2011, 14:00 UTC.

After the big bend of the Irrawaddy River around an anticline in northern Burma (at T. rex eats fish), here is another Google Earth challenge, following in the tradition of a previous WoGE posted on Hindered Settling.

As soon as I saw the stunning geology in John’s WoGE challenge, I started looking for the solution in the fold belts of Iran that have essentially zero vegetation. My search was successful, so here comes WoGE #69. Have fun.

Update: Brian has the answer; here is a bit more detail about this image. It’s the southernmost distributary of the Danube Delta in Romania, called the Sfantu Gheorghe channel. The geometry of the deposits is determined by (1) the river discharge, (2) the wave energy of the Black Sea, and (3) the southward oriented longshore transport. The asymmetry of the lobe is a function of the ratio between the net longshore transport rate at the mouth and river discharge. The longshore currents erode the beach/barrier bars on the northern side of the channel mouth. More details in this paper. This image also comes from Bhattacharya and Giosan (2003):

Black represents sand, gray is predominantly muddy deposits, and the white arrow at the river mouth shows the direction of longshore drift.

I figured out that the Google Earth image posted by Kim was cut by a famous fault, so I have a chance to post the next installment of Where on (Google) Earth. I don’t think this is easy – it is certainly not a famous geologic locality, and I know it would be tough for me. But I have been interested in erosional meanders for some time, so here you go. North is up.